Attack Con Titan
by MaireadSystem
Summary: Levi and Eren attend a comic book convention, Kaneki Ken in tow.
_Please read my profile for background on this scenario._

 _Levi here. Lame-ass title, I know... I had to take a little break from Pride & Prejudice & Hange. I'm still working on it, though. In the meantime, I went to a convention dressed as myself. Eren got a big kick out of everything - how I got stopped by about every third person for a photo op, how kids dressed as scouts cowered as they asked if they could get a picture with me, etc. Here's an account of some of the highlights... or at least, the most significant incidents._

* * *

There was a ridiculously long line to get into the convention. Eren continuously pointed out various outfits to our friend Kitsune, who was dressed as Mikasa, and she did the same for us. Kaneki lagged behind, looking around at everything with his wide eyes, feeling self-conscious without his eye patch.

It was April 2nd, Kaneki's alternate birthday, but of course our Kaneki has no memory of such a thing, so we didn't make a big deal out of it as we had for Eren's birthday on March 30th. However, we met a couple of guys dressed as later versions of Kaneki, and one of them actually had the birthday April 2nd. Kaneki himself tried to pay them little attention. He has learned by now that he will one day go through some sort of unpleasant transformation, and he is not looking forward to it.

Once we actually got inside, Kaneki got a little more excited, though he was still quiet. He especially liked looking at the books for sale. Since we exist on our own plane where everything is mirrored except the people, he was able to pick up a few books he liked without paying for them. He felt strange about it, because he is nothing if not an honest young man, but we reassured him that the objects on our plane always go unmissed.

Eren particularly enjoyed seeing all the small children in their costumes: little Spiderman, a toddler Ninja Turtle girl, et cetera. Even I couldn't help smiling at a few of them by the end of the day... they wore down my defenses. Prolonged time away from the military with prolonged exposure to adorable children... I'm human.

I was surprised at how intimidated many people were of me, particularly young girls, regardless of costume. I did threaten to take out a couple of people, but for the most part I was feared without any threats. I found the need to point out, "I don't beat people up except to save their lives," on more than one occasion.

There were a lot of junior high-aged children dressed as scouts, and we gave and collected pictures with several of them. In parting, I generally told them, "Be sure to report for duty first thing in the morning," and the invariable reply was, "Yes, sir!" It's strange how popular I am in this world... so much so that kids want to pretend to be my soldiers with no thought of what that would actually entail.

We met a Tameki (OHSHC), and later a Hanji nearly knocked me over in a tackle, but I managed to keep my footing. She was, to say the least, an exuberant girl. There was a mass-cosplay photo shoot outside later in the day, and this Hanji found the need to heckle me as I stood by a petite Eren... an Eren I towered over by about a head, which felt odd... when the shoot was over we continued our banter until she felt the need to lick my face. Had Mairead been fronting, she might have panicked. As it was, I blinked, turned my head to look at this girl, blinked some more and said, "That just happened..."

I really wanted to sweep her legs out from under her and dump her on her ass, but 1. I didn't want to get us kicked out of the event, and 2. I was afraid I might damage the costume Kitsune and Mairead had put so much time into. I didn't wipe off my face then and there, because I had nothing disposable with which to do so. I waited until we got back to the car and was relieved to find that Eren had packed facial wipes. Every once in a while, the boy has some forethought.

Kaneki didn't come along on the second day. He was satisfied with the books he had gotten, and I think the mass of humans was a bit overwhelming for him. Fortunately, he wasn't hungry at the time. Obviously, I would not have taken him to a place like that if he had been.

The second day was the costume contest, so I had to be all geared up for that as well. I left the harness loose until the contest was only about an hour away, and it was much less tiring walking around that way. I saw the mad Hanji girl again fairly early in the day...

"You licked me yesterday," I stated.

"Mhm," she answered, seeming a little anxious about retaliation.

"That was not ok."

"Ok."

"If something like that happens again, I will take you out. Just so you know."

"Ok." She sounded sufficiently timid.

So, that settled that.

There was another Hanji in the costume contest, and even though she had green hair, she actually took first place. A judge approached me afterward and said that although my Levi was spot-on for authenticity, the girl playing Hanji had made more of her costume by hand, and that was why she won. I told her I appreciated her compliments and the fact that my worthy opponent hand-made her odm tanks. Although I didn't really give a shit about the prizes, I knew how hard Mairead worked to make herself look like me so I could walk around looking like myself to everyone else, and I pointed out that cosplay contests are not like costume contests. If a person has a brilliant costume but not the persona to go with it, they might as well be at a Halloween party. Mairead has much less respect for those in that situation, and it would seem more appropriate for the judges to take that approach as well.

In any case, someone will always have a complaint about the way any contest is judged, and life is far too short to gripe about such things. Mairead was pleased that the judge took the time to talk to her about it, which is more of a positive response than she's ever gotten at a convention before.

We met a twelve- or so-year-old kid dressed as me and got a picture together. Then we kept trying to go on through the con... and people kept. stopping. me. for pictures.

We ran into the Tameki from the day before. His cosplayer seemed quite distraught, breathing hard. I asked if she was all right and she said "I just almost had a panic attack because my friend wasn't answering her phone." Naturally, we couldn't leave her in that state, so I initiated a hug (much to Eren's amazement; for some reason, he thinks I'm incapable of compassion or some such shit) and our friend dressed as Jack Frost joined in, and we waited until the Tameki player had calmed significantly before moving on.

Jack, by the way, had a few amusing encounters with Elsa from Frozen. There was excited chatter, pictures, even video.

It was late in the day, and vendors were slowly beginning to pack up when "Levi Junior" approached our group again.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked.

"Sure," I answered, thinking it was probably a costuming question.

"I don't know my way around, because this is my first con. Do you think you could show me around?"

Eren about fell apart at this point, exclaiming over how cute this kid was, but of course I was the only one who could hear him.

"Absolutely," I answered. I introduced him to Kitsune and Jack Frost and our Japan-enthusiast friend and told them Levi 2 would be hanging out with us.

So we wandered a bit more. I asked what the kid's name was and he said, "Actually, my real name is Levi."

Eren said some stupid crap like, "No way! That's awesome."

I asked if he had been dropped off, or if someone came with him. He said his sister was there, but she was running around with her friends and apparently either he couldn't keep up, or they were a bit exclusive. Or both. Well, screw his sister. I didn't say that, of course. Something much lighter along those lines. I wasn't sure how old he was, or how much he cared about his sister for that matter, so I was trying to be fairly polite and more or less G-rated.

It was about fifteen minutes to closing time when Levi junior asked me to show him around some booths to find souvenirs. I said something vague to one or two of our companions to let them know we were heading another direction. We looked at buttons and artwork and so forth and each bought one or two things. I joked that we were probably long-lost brothers with the same rogue father who named all his kids Levi. "That is one sick man," I said, eliciting a smile from the self-conscious youth.

Kitsune gave me crap for not answering Mairead's phone. It was in the backpack I was carrying... I couldn't hear it over the con-din around me. I wasn't very sorry, either... she had disappeared on me a time or two during our wandering. Turnabout is fair play.

It was about then that Levi junior asked me to help find his sister, so we all tramped around the entire con again about a time and a half (asked a clueless No Face if he had seen her...) before we finally spotted the pink-haired girl. It seemed like she was rather fond of her brother after all - they had each gotten a gift for the other. He seemed to be in good hands, so I gave him a hug, reminded him that I'd given him my email and left with the others.

Our little Japanophile told me "You're a good person, Mairead." This was wrong on a couple of levels. First, I'm not Mairead... and I know we've explained our situation to her before, but I couldn't remind her of it with Jack Frost there - Jack's cosplayer is not in the know. Second, helping someone doesn't make you a good person, necessarily. Third... I don't think I've ever considered myself to be one.

Finally, unable to think of a fitting answer, I merely said, "Don't say that."

Eren said that was a bit abrupt and might have sounded rude. Well, I didn't mean it to be, but she had sort of cornered me.

We had to rush home after that, to get ready for the role playing game that Kitsune and Mairead are a part of. Amedeo is Mairead's role play character, so he had to leave the house at awfully short notice. To be honest, if he hadn't been ready and waiting, we might even have forgotten him, because Mairead didn't bother to change costumes in between.

If she had, we would have discovered the wounds incurred during the day. Mairead's relatively new and extreme binding methods left her with two blisters on her chest. They had burst, but with everything bound up so tightly, we hadn't even noticed. To make matters worse, the mirrored wounds on my plane were more like two parallel burns on my chest. They are large and still painful, even four days later. Leo tried to heal them, but like the wound Eren had months back, he can't seem to make much progress with them.

Mairead is healing all right. It seemed at first like the abrasions, or whatever you would call them, were infected. We applied alcohol and triple antibiotic ointment, and they seem healthier now, issuing only a small amount of blood and not pus. My wounds have closed similarly, but remain a lot larger. I'm sure they will heal eventually, but for now I have to be careful... and showering is torture.

Anyway, it was a very long, but very full weekend. A new experience for Eren, Kaneki and me... There were parts of it that were very annoying, but getting to be myself in public was a definite plus. We got some good pictures and souvenirs, and if we're still here when the next one rolls around, I think it will be Eren's turn to be himself.

Until then... my god, I am very much content to keep away from large crowds of people. I've got Kaneki to look after, Eren to boss around and Sasha to attempt to keep out of trouble. Not to mention Amedeo to keep track of and Leo to call in now and then. I certainly have plenty to do and no lack of companions.

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 _Thank you for reading. As always, feel free to leave comments or ask questions.  
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